Case Study: Code Black

The new CBS series Code Black is a heart-pounding medical drama that takes place in the busiest, most notorious E.R. in the nation, where the staggering influx of patients can outweigh the limited resources available to the extraordinary doctors and nurses whose job is to treat them all—creating a condition known as Code Black. In its long struggle against runaway production, California’s film & television industry was often described in terms of a patient in need of a “medical” rescue. It is almost poetic that a show about medical emergencies is one of the series helping the recovery of California’s television production sector.

As one of the first eleven series selected to receive the new California Film & Television Tax Credit Program 2.0, Code Black is helping lead a resurgence of scripted content in California, which increased over fifty percent in the Greater Los Angeles region in the third quarter of 2015. Those eleven shows are giving the California economy an infusion of over $500 million in direct production spending, $41 million of which is attributed to Code Black. As the state’s economy as a whole continues its recovery from the Great Recession, shows like Code Black are doing their part to put Californians back to work.

While filming just its first season, Code Black will support over 6,000 jobs in California, including over 385 full-time cast and crew positions. And even though the jobs and spending and from Code Black stem from a show that is set in Los Angeles, the economic benefits for California would not have been possible without the new California tax credit program. According to Executive Producer/Creator, Michael Seitzman, the show was set to move to another state had it not received the California incentive.

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“The show is set in Los Angeles, which is why it was ironic that we were gonna move to another state,” said Seitzman. “The kind of show we are making is almost all interior, which makes it really easy to shoot somewhere else.”

In the following video, members of the crew on Code Black share their experiences of shooting in other states and countries and express their thanks for the California Film & Television Tax Credit for bringing film back to California.